Crafting Saturday

Thanks to Rena , Kim , and Adrienne I am finding some very interesting craft/floral ideas for the holidays...so I thought I would share a few a simple craft that I have given out over the years...

Ceramic Hot Plates

The first uses inexpensive 6x6 ceramic tiles from the home supply store, paper napkins, and elmers glue...

The tile can be any color you want to go with the napkin picture...just make sure the front of the tile is smooth...

The 3 wooden blocks can be used as legs or you can cut felt to fit the back of the tile...

The napkins that I use are the ones you can get at Walmart for like a $1.00 something a pack...

The napkins are two ply, so you have to pull the napkins apart...this is probably the hardest part of this whole project, but once you get things started, they pull apart pretty easy...

You can leave everything the way it is on the napkin or you can cut out the main picture...I have done this both ways, depending on the picture layout...

Mix the elmer's glue with water...I pour a little water in at a time just to thin the glue...you want it to spread on easy and you don't want it too thick, because it will take forever to dry...

Using a sponge brush, small artist painting brush or a sponge cut into smaller pieces, dip into the glue and wipe across the tile. Coating like you would if you were decopaging. Then place the napkin or napkin pieces on the glue coated tile...

Don't worry if there is wrinkles...this gives it the homemade look...plus, moving the napkin around too much will tear it and then you have to start all over again...let it dry...once dry, you will use the same glue mixture and put a couple of coats over the dried napkin...

If you are using this as a hot plate, you will want to put a couple coats of craft primer that can handle the heat...

The last thing you want to do is finish off the back. This keeps the tile from scratching a table, etc. I have painted the wooden blocks to match the colors in the picture, glued them to each corner and I've use the felt cut to fit the back...either way is nice...it's really all in what you want to do...

I've made these for each season and given them all as a Christmas gift, birthday gift, etc....some people use them for hot pads, and some put them out as decorations...

I've also made them to match the person's home that I am giving them to...one 6x6 decorated tile, and 4 of the 4x4 tiles decorated to match...so they have a hot pad and 4 coasters...

These can NOT be washed, they have to be wiped down...Here are some of the finished products...

These were done using rubber stamps and glass paints/markers...The one with the snowmen says: "Snowmen fall from Heaven unassembled" and the one with the angels says: "Being Friends with you is one of the greatest blessings of my life"...

And here is the one using the napkin...I didn't have one all ready made up, so I just did this one up quick like...so it is still a little wet, and that is why some of it looks white...once everything is dry, I will put the back on...I like gluing wooden blocks to the back over cutting the felt...

Ceramic tiles are sooo inexpensive and you can do soo much with them...

Happy Holidays!